Tag: Newcastle

Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez admits that his Newcastle United players have no excuses for not performing in the Premier League despite the reduced transfer activity this summer.

The former Real Madrid coach took over the Magpies’ reigns during the tailend of the 2015/16 season, but he was unable to prevent them from beating them from beating the drop.

Despite this, he committed his future to the Tyneside outfit on a three-year deal whilst guiding them back to the Premier League as Championship holders. Speaking to reporters prior to their league opener against Tottenham Hotspur, the Spaniard admitted that every single player and staff will have to be up for it as they cannot make excuses for his reduced summer spending.

He said: “The main message from me for the fans is get behind the players because it’s now the way. I was telling the players that we cannot make excuses, so we have to be ready and try to win the games and that’s it. Sometimes we will do it and sometimes we will not do it, but we have to be sure that every single game, the players give everything and myself and my staff will do the same.”

Premier League defending champs Chelsea are not likely to be relegated to the lower division at the end of next season, bookies claim.

The odds are well staked in favour of the Roman Abramovich owned side 2500:1.

With the Manchester clubs spending big, both are not likely to be relegated as their odds are 2500:1 as well. Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham have odds 1000:1 of relegating. They are rather likely winners after the top three aforementioned.

Ronald Koeman led Toffees are 66:1 in the odds of relegation next term even though they would be sharing their time with European fixtures. Southampton have 20:1 while former champs Leicester City have 14:1 odds.

The Hammers who were riding high in the 2015/16 season have odds of 7:1 after a difficult term last year despite spending relatively big. Stoke City are 13:2 as with Bournemouth after a decent return last year.

West Bromwich Albion have odds of 5:1 while Crystal Palace are 9:2 to drop down. Returners to the big boys, Newcastle United under Rafa Benitez have a decent chance of remaining in the top flight this time as they are 100:30 in the likelihood of returning to the Championship where they are defending champs.

The club which was relegated from the Premier League last season is favorite to win promotion back to the top-flight. The win at Barnsley is the fourth in a row for the club as they look to build momentum in the Championship.

The match was won thanks to two goals from Dwight Gayle in the second half. Newcastle started the match the better and took control of the game despite playing away. However they will be let down by poor passing, and when they managed to get the ball in the penalty area, the Barnsleydefence managed to clear their line.

However, Newcastle will improve dramatically in the second half and create more decisive chances. Dwight Gayle will score the first goal of the game when Barnsley will fail to clear a corner. The goal will motivate Newcastle, and they will become more dangerous during their attacking play.

‘’We are working hard and I check with managing director Lee Charnley every day. We are talking with agents and thinking about what we have to do to improve the team and make sure the squad has the right number of players’’

“It’s not easy, though. As soon as Premier League clubs had more money, it was difficult because everybody is spending big money. We have targets and are working on them. Hopefully, we will do something sooner rather than later.” Newcastle United’s Rafael Benitez said as he voiced his desire to continue adding more players to his squad.

Grant Hanley says the delay that was taking place in his transfer was irking him and was getting him impatient, but, because he could not really have a say in the bargaining stuff happening between clubs, there was no point letting the matter dominate his mind.

However surprisingly, when Newcastle made the approach third time with an increment of just one more million to the bidding amount, Coyle took it.

Having his first communication with media as a magpie, Hanley said, “It took quite a while and yes, when you are waiting and waiting, it’s normal that you feel a little irritated, but, what can you do as a player when it depends on other parties? Nothing really; so, the lesser you put your mind into it, the better.”

Rafael Benitez was appointed as the head coach of Newcastle United on March 11 and at that point in time, there were 10 Premier League games remaining until the end of the season.

The main reason of why the Spanish manager was selected as the coach is to push Newcastle United into a higher spot in the English league and avoid relegation.

So far, Benitez has led Newcastle United to a string of defeats and draws against Leicester City, Sunderland, Norwich City and Southampton. The only triumph has been against Swansea City and Benitez continues to drop points then relegation will be inevitable for Newcastle United and it’s highly likely that Rafael Benitez is going to be sacked or at least that is what rumors have recently been suggesting.

When asked about the possibility of surviving in the Premier League for another season and avoid relegation, Rafael Benitez replied by saying: He said: “I think that this is a massive club, that’s why I wanted to manage in the Premier League and have the opportunity to stay up with Newcastle, and to stay there for a while.It depends on the other teams too, but if we can play at the level we have for the past few games with the same kind of fight and team spirit then we can do it.”

Only a few days ago, Clint Dempsey saved the blushes of the US national team by scoring in the 4-0 win over Guatemala.

After a surprising set of results, the national team was in danger of missing out on the World Cup 2018 following a loss against the minnows from the North American region. The reverse victory has helped boost the confidence within the national team. Dempsey secured his 49th goal for the national team in the process. He continued the good goalscoring form with a winner against Montréal Impact during the weekend. The Canadian team were without star striker Didier Drogba.

Without the influence of the former Chelsea forward, the team has been looking weak in attack. Seattle Sounders took full advantage of the situation to gain their first win of the season. The club has started the 2016 campaign in a very disappointing fashion after losing the opening three matches. The club has been allowing more than a goal per game since the start of the campaign. Hence, Dempsey is just happy to get three points and come away with a clean sheet more than anything. Seattle will now look towards replicating this form on a more consistent basis.

Ian Wright along with Thierry Henry are considered to be 2 of the best players to have ever worn the Arsenal jersey. Wright played for Arsenal from 1991 until 1998 and during this period of time, he managed to make over 200 appearances and scored 128 goals for the English club.

Even though it’s been around 17 years since Wright last played for Arsenal, he still remains up to date with how things are going with the Premier League club and Wright himself has stated on numerous occasions that Arsenal is one of his most preferred clubs.

Wright retired from playing professional competitive football back in 2000 and since then, he has turned into a football pundit and radio personality. In one of the most recent television sessions of Ian Wright, he talked about Arsenal’s chances of winning the Premier League and Wright emphasized on the importance that Olivier Giroud has played and will continue to play for Arsenal.

Former star of Arsenal, Ian Wright believes that Olivier Giroud has what it takes to propel Arsenal to the league title as he said: “I think he is. I’ve always thought he was because he scores goals.My only problem with Olivier is the fact that can he really dig in with defenders that are trying to batter him all over the place, and he did. He showed he could do that. If he does that with Ozil in the form that he is in, Sanchez to come back, then of course because he scores goals’’

It has been a bit of a tough time of late for Newcastle United both on and off the field, but, the boss Steve McClaren is quite unruffled.

McClaren believes politics is not something new to the clubs belonging to North East, but, one needs to get on with his job and that’s what he is doing.

Speaking yesterday, McLaren said, “I am quite used to politics. It does not bother me. Having spent more than one and half decades in North East, I am aware of everything that goes on. It pretty much happens in all the clubs in this region.”

“Politics is obviously something that you don’t want to be there. The only aim should be to make the club grow and go from strength to strength in terms of performances. You want everyone to be on the same page and working with the same goal.”

“The idea is to be consistent and get ourselves contending for Europe at some point of time and that will happen only if we work together. There were indeed some encouraging signs in the match we played versus West Ham to finish our season off and that pleased me.”